He read from his index card notebook in memorization as he sat upon the bench overlooking the river: “’And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.’ Luke 17:6.” He was Flanders Nickels, a born-again believer whose heart was smitten by a girl who got away. The girl who got away was Tracy Treble Clef, a girl he once knew as a cheerleader. He daydreamed for months that Tracy become born-again like himself for the eternal good of her beautiful soul over which he pined. His “life with Tracy” was a long-distance romancing over her soul. He even let the song “As the Deer” run in his head as he prayed lots to God for her salvation. This Bible verse spoke to him from the Holy Spirit, telling him, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might get to lead your Tracy to salvation.” Dating her would be the thrill of his life; leading her to Christ would be the thrill of his afterlife. This bench upon which he was sitting was in his place with God between the two parks. To his right off to the north a couple of blocks was Voyageur Park. And to his
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left off to the south a couple of blocks was Wells Park. The old and outdated Claude-Allouez Bridge that joined this eastern De Pere to western De Pere was off to his left only few hundred feet away. And this river that flowed before him was the Fox River. And the bright yellow sun of summer afternoon in Wisconsin shone gloriously upon the river as he looked out upon it. He sought to tell himself in faith of God that He could save so-pretty Tracy’s lost soul. First Tracy had to want to get saved. As Pastor always preached, “Before you can get a person saved, first you have to get him to know that he is lost.” Did not God say in I Timothy 2:4, “Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth?” Jesus did die for all men and women and children, and He did want to save all men and women and children. His death and burial and resurrection indeed make salvation free for the asking. But asking for salvation was a rare thing indeed among the human race. Pride was the main stumbling block to lost people choosing to seek the Saviour. And Tracy was proud. She was proud that one day that he had come up to her before the game and proffered her a tract. She did not know him: he was a man in his thirties, and she was a girl in her late teens. He liked cheerleaders most of all women, and Tracy Treble Clef was the prettiest cheerleader he had ever beheld. Of course, himself a born-again believer for just a few years, her attraction of attire and face and physique stirred up his heart hard for her eternal soul. That day that he had witnessed to her was the first time he had ever given a cheerleader the Word of God. Indeed such a booklet as this salvation tract could mean for her the difference between Heaven and Hell. She took it most matter of fact, most indifferent, most unimpressed. She seemed aloof for a young woman cheerleader who was getting the Word of God. This happened at Braisher Field behind De Pere High School. And Flanders said not a lot for not a lot of time before the game started. And Tracy was even more unimpressed with God than she was with this witness-warrior who had a major crush on her. The next game was at West DePere High School, where this Tracy was a visiting cheerleader. Flanders came up to her and sought to give her another of the same tract as the last one. But Tracy Treble Clef rejected this tract this time. And his witnessing
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days for Tracy were done now. But his praying days for Tracy were only just beginning for him and for her. In his most fervent and ardent prayer of any intercessory-salvation prayer for his cherished Tracy,
he pleaded with God, “I beg of Thee, O Lord, carry Tracy’s soul unto so great salvation! I don’t even want her to suffer a hangnail, and hellfire is so much worse than a hangnail!” He discovered the song “Bearers of Light,” by Michael Card, and he listened to it and prayed desperately for her soul lots of nights. And that first day that he got together with her of all the cheerleaders, and his face and her face looked at each other from the opposite sides of the low fence, and her voice and his voice spoke to each other, and he proffered that tract, and she took that tract—he went on to call “the most important tract I had ever given out.” Flanders even had a sweet dream about Tracy one night where she was kind and humble before him. In that dream, he and his best friend were watching a neighborhood baseball game.
A chain link fence separated them from the game there at the third base line. Up to this fence suddenly came Tracy from the baseball diamond! And she actually went ahead to talk to Flanders, this high fence between them. And Tracy in this dream was kind and humble and sincere before Flanders as she willingly chatted with him. Like a friend, she shared with Flanders her hurt over her parents’ divorce.
And Flanders Nickels talked with a friendly Tracy Clef. Then he woke up. Flanders sighed as he sat upon this bench. He saw the sidewalk running right and left before his bench. He saw the landscaped big flat-topped rocks of the river bank. He again saw the yellow sun reflecting off of the Fox River.
And he turned to the next page of his little index card notebook and read in memorization: “’And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.’ Matthew 17:20.” God spoke to Flanders Nickels again, this time saying, “If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall ask Tracy, ‘Do you want to get saved today?’ and she will say, ‘I want to get saved today.’” Sweet daydream of life! God could do this! Nothing was impossible with God! And Flanders waited upon the God Who answers prayers.
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Then he saw movement off to his left from his peripheral vision. He turned to look. And he saw a most peculiar young woman in a most peculiar old-time prom gown there underneath the bridge not far away. She looked to be pretty. And her prom gown was a vintage style prom gown from the late 1980’s or early 1990’s. It shone with a sheen of deep royal purple, and it covered her from shoulders to ankles. And she had pumps of the same deep royal purple. She seemed to have a bemused –maybe amused—expression with a tilting of her head. She was on the edge of the sidewalk underneath the bridge and leaning against the sturdy fence of pipes that kept a walker from falling into the river. And this young woman was holding out a steaming mug of something out over the railing in both hands. She was not in danger; but she was definitely putting her hot drink in danger. Was she going to dump her drink—whatever it might be—into the river? Then she spoke to herself, “’Twenty-three ski-doo’ as Grandpa used to say. ‘Tally-ho.’ as Grandma used to say.” Then she tipped her hot mug a little to the side, and something poured out of it. Then she straightened back right-side-up her mug, and she said. “That’s enough coffee for you, river. The rest is all mine.” Then she set down the cup upon the sidewalk between her feet, rested her chin upon the railing, and looked down into the waters below and said, “I wish I hadn’t done that just now, river. I get only one cup a day of that.”
She then stepped away from the railing, picked up her coffee mug again in both hands, turned toward Flanders whom she had not noticed, and took a sip from her mug.
She may not have known him, but he surely knew her. Why, this was Tracy Treble Clef, now a few years older and a few years even more beautiful! She must have seen his countenance gaping at her, because the first thing she said to him now was, “What’s that look for? Haven’t you ever seen a woman before?”
Not offended by her brusqueness (after all, he saw her as a brusque girl those days at the football games) he played the flirt and asked her, “Are you going to the prom, young woman?”
“No,” she said with sarcasm. “I always wear a prom gown when there is no prom to go to.”
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“Sorry I asked,” he said, enjoying her snap. Then he thought to himself, This is the middle of summer; proms do not take place in the middle of summer. And he challenged her, saying, “This is not the time of year for proms, young lady.”
Yet again she said, “I always wear a prom gown when there is no prom to go to.” Yet this time she gave away no note of sarcasm. And he believed her.
“You always wear prom gowns then?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said, her tone mellowing out now some. She was telling him the truth about herself.
And she came up to him, her formal dress swishing as she walked, and she stopped in front of his bench and said, “Would you like a sip of my coffee?” She held out her mug toward him.
“No thanks,” he said. “I drink tea.”
And then she went right ahead to sit down upon his bench to his right hand side, set her coffee upon the cement below the bench, and said, “I dare you to touch my prom gown by my feet.”
“A Christian fellow like myself hesitates to do something like that to a girl,” he said.
“If you won’t, then I will,” she said. And she reached down and stroked her prom gown across her ankles. And she said, “The fabric is called ‘acetate,’ and I love the feel of this acetate,’”
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
“I can’t remember you,” she said.
“You are Tracy,” he said.
“I am Tracy,” she did concur. “Who are you?”
“I am the strange older man who tried to tell you about Jesus that one day when you were a cheerleader,” he said.
“You?” she asked. “That is you then,” she then said.
“My name is ‘Flanders,’” he said.
Temporarily discomfited by this gentleman to which she had been rude back in the day, she
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turned her eyes away from him and leaned down and put the coffee mug to her mouth for another drink and did set the coffee back down again below the bench. Then she looked him in the eye again and said, “Sorry for my rudeness back in the day, Flanders. Sometime we cheerleaders think of ourselves as the apples of eyes.”
“’…: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.’ Zechariah 2:8, Tracy,” he recited scripture.
“That’s in the Bible?” she asked. He nodded. “What does it mean in there?”
“The apple of his eye in this case was God’s chosen nation Israel,” preached Flanders.
“I want to be the apple in God’s eye, too, Flanders,” she said. “How can I get that for myself?”
“I’d say that you would have to become a born-again believer,” he told her.
“Ho ho ho!” she laughed most disrespectfully upon hearing this.
Angry for God at her most irreverent laughter he told her, “What do you find funny about Christ?”
“Nothing about Him personally, Flanders,” she said. “But a girl like myself becoming a born-again Christian like yourself? I made a little joke and told my family just to get them nervous, and it all blew up in my face. Now none of them are talking to me. And it is all because of Christ. It’s His fault.”
“What did you tell your family that you thought was so funny?” he asked.
“I went and told them that I became a born-again Christian,” she said.
“That was your funny joke?” he said, most offended.
“Surely no thinking woman would go and do so crazy a thing as to become born again like that,” said Tracy Clef. “I didn’t think that they would all take it seriously. But the more I tell them that I was being facetious when I said that, the more they would not believe the truth, Flanders. I was really just trying to get back to my friend Jenny. Do you know what she said? She said that only born-again
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Christians get to to to Heaven. Crazy idea. Makes me so mad..” Then Miss Clef said to Flanders, “If only I knew the Bible like she did. I would go and find the first verse I could find that proved her all wrong about such a thing.”
“The Bible talks about that,” said Flanders. “Twice in fact.”
“Oh yeah? What’s it say?” she asked.
“It is written in John 3:3, ‘Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” recited Flanders. “And again is it written in John 3:7, ‘Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.’”
“Tell me, Flanders, that you’re making all of this up as you go along,” she said. “I dare you to find what you just said in the Bible.” And he showed her John 3:3, and he showed her John 3;7. And she became embarrassed and began to swing her feet back and forth underneath the bench in self-consciousness. Lo, suddenly something tipped over and there came a sound of a breaking. Both looked down below the bench, and there it was—coffee all spilled out and a broken coffee mug.
“Blooming coffee! Blooming mug!” she complained most staunchly. And in ire, she leaned back against the back of the bench, looked up to Heaven where God was, and rolled her eyes in weariness and in frustration. He could tell that she blamed God for this having happened. And she sighed and said, “Blooming accident that You could have made not happen.” And she groaned and moaned in most carnal censure at everybody else and not at all upon herself. And in silent temper tantrum, she scowled in pout, crossed her arms, and blew air up into her bangs, and mumbled under her breath until she finished her temper tantrum five minutes later.
Then Flanders asked her, “Tracy, do you want to get saved today?” He remembered the still small voice that had spoken to him just before Tracy had come up to him.
But she said most vehemently, “No, Flanders, I do not at all want to get saved today!”
“What about those two verses?” he asked.
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“I do not care for those two verses, Flanders,” she said.
“Would you like me to quit telling you about Jesus?” he asked, his boldness already stretching out beyond his timid nature in the matter of soul-winning.
“I was born unborn again, and I will die unborn again,” she said adamantly.
His care for her greater than his shyness of utterance right now, he proceeded to say, “Let me tell you how I become a Christian, Tracy.”
“Do I have to hear this?” she asked, all put out and a little coarse.
God giving him a ready answer to tell her, he said, “You cannot go anywhere away with your cup of coffee right now, Tracy.”
“Then I guess that I have to stay,” she said.
And Flanders Nickels gave the testimony of his salvation to this pretty prom gown girl: “I was at my table ‘playing football’ again with my bottle caps. I had set up on the table eleven bottle caps that read ‘Union Made Black Label and eleven bottle caps that read “Miller.” Black label was the power/physical football team; Miller was the speed/finesse football team. And I had a little steely
put on top of the Black Label center in the formation to get ready for the next play. This steely was ‘the football.’ I was in the middle of this most entertaining diversion, and the score was tied at seven-up. I then ‘hiked’ the football to the quarterback right behind the center. And with my creative imagination, I spontaneously moved the bottle caps around upon the table in the formation of a play. The offensive line pushed back the defensive line. The two ends of the defensive line came in toward the quarterback from both sides. The running back came running up, and the quarterback handed the football to him.
And the running back ran a ground play up the middle. The two defensive ends missed him. And there was a big hole in the middle. The running back blasted through into the opponent’s backfield. And two linebackers finally caught him and tackled him. Lo, a ten-yard gain for Union Made Black Label and a first down. Then there came a knocking on the door. And when I opened it, there stood two men
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in suits and ties, a Bible in their right hands and a pack of little tracts in their left hands.”
“You mean like the tract you gave me, Flanders?” she asked.
“The very same ones, Tracy,” he said. “The one man was an older gentleman with a hoary head. The other was a portly gentleman with much strength. The portly gentleman spoke to me first and said, ‘Hello, we are from Blessed Hope Baptist Church out calling on people on Broadway Street tonight. We would like to give this little booklet to you. I tells how to never go to Hell and how to go to Heaven.’ He proffered me one of those little books. And I did not hesitate to accept it in both hands.
And I put it into my shirt pocket at once and said ‘Thank you.’
This fellow with much strength went on to tell me, ‘I am Brother Gary and this is Pastor Just.’
He then asked me. ‘If you were to die today, do you know where you would go?’
I never heard anyone before ask me such a question, Tracy! I could tell for sure, now that this fellow first got me thinking about it, that I was not going to Heaven the way I was living my life without Christ. But I did not think of myself as being a person so bad that I was going to Hell. And I said, ‘I am not good enough for Heaven. But I am not bad enough for Hell.’
And Brother Gary said. ‘Nobody is good enough for Heaven. Without Jesus, everyone is bad enough for Hell.’
‘But I am one of those without Jesus, sir,’ I told him, myself offended,
‘Alas,’ groaned Brother Gary, ‘there is no kind way to tell a person that he is going to Hell.’
‘Are you with Jesus?’ I asked the two of them.
And Brother Gary said, ‘Yes. Pastor and I are with Jesus.’
‘With Jesus then, you are going to Heaven when it comes your time to die?’ I asked them.
‘Jesus saves, young man,’ said this Gary.
‘Hm,’ I said, first pondering such eternal truths that these two men knew that I did not know.
Then big Gary told me, ‘The best that the lost will ever have it is down here. But the worst that
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the saved will ever have it is down here. It gets much worse for the lost in their life to come. And it gets much better for the saved in their life to come. Getting saved is a win-win situation. And a man has nothing to lose getting saved from his sins like that.’ The two men in church suits looked at each other, and the strong big fellow asked me, ‘Do you want to get saved tonight, young man?’
I thought for a long, long time in a prolonged silence of expectation from the two church men.
Then I said, ‘I do want to get saved tonight, Gary, Pastor.’
Then Gary said, ‘Amen!’ And he turned to Pastor and said, ‘Your turn, Pastor.’
I could tell that even though this Brother Gary was strong of body, he was not so strong in speaking as was this Pastor, older and smaller than this Gary. And I could tell that this Gary was more confident in getting his listeners to start thinking about the Saviour than he was in actually leading his listeners to the Saviour. And Pastor Just took over from there. And all he did to get me saved was to have me pray along with him out loud, line by line, for just a little while. And by the time that he had me to say, ‘Amen,’ at the end of this prayer, and I said ‘Amen’ at the end of this prayer, I was myself now born again. All that I had to say to get saved was to pray to the Heavenly Father and confess my sin nature and to apologize for it and to repent of it; and to confess the Gospel—the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus the Lord—and to ask Him to become my personal Saviour and give me eternal life. And I prayed this sinners’ prayer in Jesus’s name. That’s why everlasting life is called the free gift. Jesus paid for it on the cruel cross of Calvary and rose again the third day.”
“What an interesting story, Flanders,” said Tracy Treble Clef.
“Oh, but it is true,” said Flanders.
“What a true tale,” said the prom gown girl.
“Tracy, do you want to get saved today?” asked Flanders.
Just then a female voice called out, saying, “Trace!’”
And right after, another female voice called forth saying, “Sister, what are you doing here?”
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“Big Sis,’ Little Sis,’” called back the prom gown girl to these two voices. And the two young women came up, and the three all hugged. “What’s up?” asked Tracy.
“You do not want to know, Big Sis,’” said the younger of the two. “It is all about your old boyfriend.”
“It’s Ruckus, Little Sis,’” said the older of the two. “We all heard that he is back in town.”
“No. Not him again,” said the prom gown woman. “No. Not him again.”
“It gets worse, Little Sis,’” said the elder sister. “Ruckus heard about your April Fool’s joke, and he is not happy about it.”
Flanders asked “Your joke about becoming a Christian was on April Fool’s Day, Tracy?”
“Yeah, Flanders. I forgot to tell you that,” said the prom gown girl.
“Who’s this with you, Big Sis?’” asked the younger sister.
“Oh, this is Flanders, and he’s a Christian,” said Tracy with shame.
“First you go and tell us that you become one of them, and now you are sitting down and talking to one of them,” said the big sister.
“Flanders is a good man,” said the prom gown girl.
“I’m a good guy,” said Flanders, defending himself in Christ.
“Well, Big Sis,’ Ruckus got out of jail, and he’s going to get even with you. He never expected to see any girlfriend of his become a Jesus person,” said the younger sister.
“He’s got the name ‘Antichrist’ tattooed on his chest; and the name ‘Beelzebub’ tattooed on his back, Little Sis,’” said the elder sister. “He had that done in prison.”
“Yikes!” said the prom gown woman.
The elder sister said, “And Ruckus is not in his right mind again these days.”
“And we think that he got worse after prison than he was before prison,” said the younger sister.
“Why did he go to prison?” asked Flanders.
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“Don’t ask, Flanders,” said Tracy.
And both sisters of the prom gown girl said at the same time, “He killed a Christian.”
“I’m a Christian,” said Flanders, nervous now.
“And you want me to become a Christian with all of this happening with me, Flanders?” asked Tracy Clef.
“Big Sis,’ he’s coming here with a scissors,” said the younger sister.
“No. It’s a knife,” said the elder sister. “Ruckus is coming here with a knife.”
The little sister said, “Ruckus is coming after you with a scissors, Big Sister, and he will cut up your prom gown with you in it!”
“Little Sister,” said the elder sister, “Ruckus is coming after you with a knife, and he will cut you up with your prom dress on you.”
“I’ve got to get out of here,” said Tracy Clef. “Where can I hide?”
“Don’t ask me,” said the big sister. “I don’t want to be anywhere around you when Ruckus finds you.”
“You’re bad news,” said the little sister. “With that man coming after you, I don’t want him to find me anywhere near you.”
And both sisters began to run back home. “Big Sister! Little Sister!” cried out the prom gown woman. But they did not stop their hasty flight for safety, thus forsaking their middle sister. “They’re gone, Flanders.” she said. “They both left me.”
“I’m not gone. I shall stay with you,” said Flanders Nickels.
“You’re a good man,” said the prom gown lady. “What does a good man like you have to do with a bad woman like myself?”
“I just happened to fall head-over-heels for your soul, O Tracy,” said Flanders.
“Did you fall head-over-heels for this prom gown girl with you now, Flanders?” she asked.
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“That I did, Tracy. That I did,” he said.
“You are a man of courage,” said Tracy, her knees trembling underneath her elegant prom dress.
To encourage her to consider Christ, he said to her, “Tracy, it is written in Mark 8:36-37, ‘For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ God is saying here in these two verses, O Tracy, that your eternal soul is worth more than all the wealth of the whole world.”
“So that means then that even if I run from Ruckus and live in safety for the whole rest of my life, that that is not so good a thing, maybe, as getting saved here now with you and maybe dying young for the cause of Christ at the hands of wild Ruckus.” said the prom gown woman. “Am I close to that Bible passage with that summary, Flanders?”
“Your eternal soul will live forever—either in Heaven or in Hell,” said Flanders. “The decision you must make about Christ is not dependent upon what Ruckus does this day. It is dependent upon your heart—whether you want to accept the Saviour or not want to accept the Saviour.”
“So if I accept the Saviour, I go to Heaven?” she asked. He nodded. “If I do not accept the Saviour, I go to Hell?” she asked. He nodded again. And she said, “I am more afraid of Ruckus right now more than I am of Jesus.”
“Again it is written in Luke 9:25, O Tracy,” he recited more scripture about her soul, “For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?’”
“Is God saying in that verse that if I fear Ruckus and deny Jesus before him unto death that I can be cast into Hell?” asked the prom gown girl.
“Denying the Saviour every time the Holy Spirit talks to you until the day you die is called ‘the sin against the Holy Ghost.’ That is the only sin that God cannot forgive—dying in your sins. Do not fear mortal Ruckus, O Tracy. God is more powerful than he.”
“Flanders, you’re making me to be afraid of the Good Lord now,” said the prom gown girl.
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“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” he said more scripture.
“I need to be more wise,” said Tracy Treble Clef.
Just then a happy male voice called forth, saying, “Hey, Tracy!”
And another friendly voice of a man said right after, “It’s us, Sis!’”
“Oh, Big Brother! Little Brother!” she called out.
But the elder was holding his right arm as if it should have been in a sling. And the younger was holding on to his right knee like it could not bend. And their clothes were torn. “You both look terrible,” called forth the prom gown lady. “What happened to you two? You look like you’ve been in a fight.”
“We have, Sister,” said the elder.
“You two brothers of mine are always getting into fights against each other,” scolded Tracy.
“But in this fight, Big Sister, we were both on the same side,” said the younger brother.
“Why, you two have never been on the same side in a fight ever,” she said, amazed. “What was it that brought you two to fight together like that?”
“Little Sister, it was Ruckus who did this to us,” said the elder brother.
“Big Sister,” said the younger brother, “Ruckus said that he was coming to get you. We did not want anything to happen to you. So we jumped Ruckus from behind right after he said that to us. Big Brother thought to hold back Ruckus’s arms, and I thought to rough him up with his arms held back. But Ruckus was too much for the both of us. Ruckus forced his arms free from Big Brother, and he did so with so much strength that he pulled Big Brother’s right arm out of its place. And then Ruckus kicked his left foot into my right knee, knocking my right knee out of its place. We both fell right down at once. And then Ruckus went on his merry way.”
“Little Sister, if you stay out in the open like this, Ruckus will find you all the sooner,” said the elder brother.
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The younger brother said then, “I tell you, Ruckus fights like there is a demon inside of him. No one can stop him.”
“”He’s stark raving mad at you for having become a Christian like that.” said the elder brother.
“Why did you have to do such a thing to us in the family?”
“But I never meant it when I said it,” cried out Tracy in incredulity at their denseness of a foolish April Fool’s joke.
“Who is this that is with you, Little Sister?” asked Big Brother. “Sir, you are not a born-again person. Are you?”
“That I am,” declared Flanders without apology. “I am a born again believer in Christ, and I can help Tracy with this mad man on the loose.
“You can help my sister?” cried out Little Brother. “Ruckus eats believers for dinner, man!”
“You had better get out of here and bring our silly sister with you and hide and never come out with Ruckus in his rampage,” said the elder brother.
“Run away from this man and run away from Ruckus and follow us, Big Sister,” said Little Brother.
“You can live with us, or you can die with this…Christian,” said Big Brother.
Without wavering, the prom gown girl said, “I shall stay with Flanders,”
Just then the wind picked up and blew a strong breeze upon the four. Fearful and without God, the two brothers said, “This must mean that he is near. Ruckus brought this wind!” And they made haste to flee in their wounded states.
Flanders and Tracy looked and watched her two brothers fail her. She said, “Ruckus did not bring that gust. God did.”
Flanders said, “The Lord wanted them away from us, Tracy.”
“They were both stumbling blocks from my listening to you tell me about Jesus,” she said with
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spiritual discernment.
“Tracy,” he asked, “do you want to get saved today?”
“I think pretty soon, Flanders,” she said.
“Right now, before Ruckus comes?” asked Flanders.
“I feel that I owe you an explanation of Ruckus,” she said. And she went on to say to Flanders, “Ruckus is the kind of guy that brings women to him. You could say that he is a ‘chick magnet.’ His volatile nature makes him seem strong and invincible. Though we women do not feel safe next to him, the danger factor is like a force that draws us toward him. We girls are on edge when we go on dates with him. And it is a thrill finding out what angry thing that Ruckus will do next. And we girls can only hope that he takes out his frustrations on someone else or something else other than us girls. I’ve seen Ruckus tear up a car one day when I asked him not to touch me there, and when he was done, I thanked him for not tearing me up, and the car was wrecked. But it was his own car, so that made it all right. I’ve seen Ruckus go into a raging screech that lasted for fifteen minutes at three o’clock in the morning when he called me for a date in the middle of the night, and I dared say, ‘No,’ to him. I did not dare to hang up on Ruckus until he was done. The police came over to his place and warned him that he was disturbing the peace. And then he was done. He hung up. I hung up. The next day he socked me in the gut. And that hurt. But I liked the attention I got from him. And another time, he
and I went to the ice cream shop for ice cream cones. I treated. I bought us both large chocolate ice cream cones. But he said that he preferred a vanilla ice cream cone. So I thought to change the order to please him. But he got all huffy like he does. He pushed me out of the car, and I fell down upon my bottom on the cement. And with my passenger side door still open, Ruckus gunned the engine and tore out of the drive-through with a squealing of the tires, bumping many of the cars in front of him. And as he drove off, I heard him beeping the horn every time he crashed into all of those cars. I was left there alone. Ruckus would not talk to me for a whole week after that. But we got back together. Ruckus
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is like a stick of dynamite. A woman never knows when he just might blow up in your face and hurt you. But he is exciting. And even though he is a man of great temper, a woman like me likes to get attention from her boyfriend, even if it is an explosion. And Ruckus is a most handsome fellow. That is why I was his girlfriend for a while, Flanders. And even now that we have broken up because of his prison sentence, he denies it and still says that we are going together. And it seems that he found out about my unfortunate joke about becoming a believer in Jesus, and he wants maybe now to kill me. I can see now that making a joke about becoming a believer does not give the honor and respect to Jesus that Jesus has coming to Him. I’m sorry that I did that, Flanders. I think that it is up to me to confront Ruckus when he comes. Maybe I can calm him down with a little charm. Maybe I can appease him a little with a sock in my jaw from his fist. Maybe I can talk him out of killing me. You should maybe leave now before he gets here. I do not want a good Christian man like you to die for a wayward woman like myself. You’ve done nothing to deserve a showdown with wild Ruckus just because of me. Go now, Flanders Nickels. I’ll be all right.”
“I will not leave your side, pretty Tracy Treble Clef,” promised Flanders.
Just then a woman’s voice called forth, “My foolish daughter, I see you with a young man.”
And a man’s voice called forth, “Oh, Tracy. We told you to stay away from young men.”
“Mom! Dad!” called forth the prom gown girl.
Mom said, “Didn’t you have enough to do with men with Ruckus?”
“You choose the wrong kind of men to date, my daughter,” said Dad.
“But, Mom, Dad, this man is a Christian,” said the prom gown woman. “His name is Flanders.”
“I’m a believer. My name is Flanders. Nice to meet you,” said Flanders Nickels, proffering his hand.
“I will not shake a Christian’s hand,” said Dad.
“I would sooner shake Ruckus’s hand,” said Mom.
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Rejected, Flanders brought his hand back. He said, “God sent me here to protect your daughter.”
“Can a man of God keep the Devil from his work?” scoffed Dad.
“Can a little man like you stop Ruckus? Ha!” sneered Mom.
“God will be with me and Tracy,” said Flanders.
“Oh, Tracy, stay away from this man with you now. Christians are more dangerous than Ruckus,” cried out Mom.
“The worst that Ruckus can do is to kill you. But this man here can brainwash you,” said Dad.
“Mom, Dad, Flanders is a good man who speaks the truth,” said the prom gown woman.
“This fellow is worse than the last fellow,” said Dad contrasting Flanders to Ruckus.
“I would prefer that you go back to Ruckus and leave Flanders alone,” said Mom.
“Young man, leave our daughter alone,” said Dad.
“And do not go and try to get her to become like you,” said Mom.
“Mom! Dad!” cried out the prom gown girl. But her parents turned their backs to their daughter and began to walk away. “Mom! Dad!” cried out Tracy again. But they kept on walking and did not stop or turn back. And they were gone. “Mom. Dad,” said Miss Clef quietly.
“God will never leave you, and I will never leave you,” promised Flanders Nickels.
“Please stay with me a while,” said the prom gown lady. And she leaned her head upon his shoulder and wept some. He held her tight and comforted her in the Lord.
Then he asked, “Tracy, is now a good time for you to get saved?”
“I am ready now, Flanders,” she did say this time. “I am ready now to get saved.”
Suddenly it felt to Flanders that the very Devil himself were here. He felt an ungodly and unclean evil coming in upon him from the south. It made him feel hot and cold at the same time. He looked out to his left where he sat. Behold, a man standing there right where he had first seen the prom
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gown girl this day—underneath the bridge and up against the railing and only a few hundred feet away.
This man had thick long wild black hair on his head and all over his face. He looked like a beast of the wild. He was more like an animal. Covering his body was black leather all over everywhere. And throughout this black leather were multitudes of zippers and chains and tassels. And he must have stood a good six-and-one-half feet tall. And he must have weighed a good three hundred pounds. And in his left hand he held a scissors which he was opening and closing over and over again as he stood there watching them. And in his right hand he held a hunting knife which he was swinging around over and over again as he stood there watching them. This must be the very Ruckus himself! And Flanders was frightened. He prayed a silent prayer to God, and Flanders was no longer frightened. The prom gown girl’s body trembled in all of her joints; the prom gown girl was frightened. He prayed to God silently for her. And she stopped trembling and was no longer fearful.
And Tracy Treble Clef whispered in Flanders’s ear and pointed to this wild fellow, “That is Ruckus, Flanders.” But this Ruckus did not move in for the kill. He just stood there in gloating and in confidence and in pride that what he came to do was worth first pausing for and enjoying the anticipation of what he was going to bring to pass. Flanders watched him in fascination of beholding pure Satanic evil. The prom gown girl felt confusion upon seeing her Ruckus waiting like this. She said, “Flanders, don’t you think that it is time to get me saved?”
“We cannot until we get the Devil away from here,” he said calmly.
“That sounds like something that only God can do,” she said.
“That is exactly what God shall do,” said Flanders, strong in the Lord.
“Soon, I hope,” she said, getting nervous upon seeing this Ruckus relish his special moment thus.
Then Ruckus with his scissors and with his knife began to stalk them in slow sure steps. He was opening and closing his scissors, and he was twirling his knife around his index finger with a
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little leather loop of a strap in its handle.
“He’s coming,” said the prom gown woman.
“He’s coming,” said Flanders, sure in his Christ.
“May he have mercy on us,” said Tracy.
“May God have mercy on him,” said Flanders, the master of this coming confrontation.
And then Ruckus stopped right in front of them on the bench, and he laughed like a maniac, his laughter quite stentorian and malignant.
Fearless in Christ, Flanders laughed back in derision at this man of the Devil, “Ha ha ha!”
Wicked servant of Lucifer and righteous servant of God stayed there looking at each other in a standoff. The man of Satan stood there, waiting to see what Flanders dared to do. Flanders and Tracy remained sitting there upon the bench, Flanders ready to strike for the Lord first.
And Flanders Nickels acted first: Sitting there upon the bench, Flanders cursed Ruckus, saying to him with Holy Ghost power and with Word of God power, “I rebuke thee, O Ruckus, in the name of Jesus Christ of Galilee!”
And this Word of God spoken by this man of God struck Ruckus hard where he was standing.
And his eyes showed disorientation for a moment. And he wobbled upon his feet. And he shook his head in dizziness. Then he regained himself. But he was wounded. And he cried out to this Flanders of Jesus, himself saying words of the demons: “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?” And he gnashed his teeth in pain.
Next, Flanders then cursed this diabolical man with another Scripture utterance, saying to him
point-blank, “Get thee hence, Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth!”
This second spoken Word of God from this man of God, struck Ruckus much harder than the first utterance had. And Ruckus saw his left hand shaking in a fit and his fingers in his left hand opening up and his scissors falling out of his grasp and upon the cement before his feet. And then
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Ruckus stared upon his right hand as it, too, fell upon a localized seizure, opened up his fingers wide, and forced him to drop the knife out onto the cement before his feet. Fear shone upon Ruckus’s countenance as he looked down upon Flanders. And Ruckus cried out once again, saying more words of demons: “Let us alone; what do we have to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee Who Thou art, the Holy One of God!” Ruckus and Flanders and Tracy could see the mighty Jesus at work with the words spoken by a man of God thus. Ruckus’s arms and legs trembled before Flanders’s Almighty God and before Flanders and the prom gown girl. But he would not leave. He was stubborn. He never lost a fight before.
Then Flanders Nickels went on to finish off so-malevolent Ruckus, and he cursed him for a third time from the Bible, “Get thee behind me, O Satan, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.”
Suddenly Ruckus fell hard upon his bottom, and where he sat, he could not stand back up.
He raised his knees where he sat, put his head over his knees with sickness and leaned forward, and threw up upon his scissors and his knife. Then he raised his head and looked up at Flanders and said with the voice of one demon, “What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High? I adjure Thee by God, that Thou torment me not!” Though he had chosen not to leave prior; now he could not leave even though he wanted to. His body was ravaged by the righteous and just God Above.
He had reaped what he had sown. And now he was stuck here, most ungainly upon his bottom upon the sidewalk, himself not able to get up.
Then Ruckus finally gave in to God, and he said to himself, “Never mess with a man with God. Never mess with a woman with a man with God. Never mess with a woman with God.” In these three utterances, Ruckus said that he lost his fight with Flanders, that he would not anymore persecute the prom gown girl now that she had Flanders as boyfriend, and that he would leave the prom gown girl all alone were she to become a Christian here and now. With this submission to the will of God, he found
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rejuvenating strength, and he stood back up again. But he learned his lesson. And he at once ran away, never to come back.
“Oh good. He’s gone,” said Tracy.
Knowing her answer, Flanders asked, “Tracy, are you ready to get saved this moment?”
“I am ready to get saved this moment, O Flanders,” said the prom gown lady. “Lead your old flame to salvation.”
And Flanders Nickels had his prom gown girl say the following prayer after him, line-by-line, unto her own so great salvation: “Dear Father in Heaven: I am a sinner with much sin. I am vile and dirty in Your sight. I am sorry for all of my sins. Please forgive me for every last one of them. I wish to change. I choose to repent. I need Your help to do this. I proclaim the truth that Your Son shed His blood on the cross of Calvary for me and did die in my place. I declare the truth of the Resurrection, that Your Son Jesus Christ rose again the third day. Christ arose! And He lives today. I ask You now to save my soul. I ask You now to become my personal Saviour. I ask You now to give me eternal life in Heaven everlasting. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.”
Both looked up from the sinners’ prayer. “I did it. Didn’t I, Flanders?” asked the prom gown girl.
“Congratulations, Tracy Treble Clef,” he said. “You have just been born again into the family of God.”
“I never have to worry now about going to Hell,” she said in joy of the Lord.
“Nothing that can happen to you now can keep you from going to Heaven in the life to come, girl,” he said in rejoicing.
“I have become a believer now. I am now a Christian,” said the prom gown woman.
It was the next day. And Flanders and Tracy were on a rendezvous at this same bench where
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she had found Christ. “Here I had found you, and I had lost Ruckus,” said the prom gown girl, again in her purple prom gown of acetate.
“Here you found Christ and lost the Devil,” said Flanders.
“I talked to my whole family after I got home yesterday, Flanders,” she said.
“What did you say?” he asked.
“I told them that when I had said on April Fool’s Day that I found Christ that that was just a joke,” she said. “And right after that, I told them that that day with you, I did for real find Christ and that this time it was no joke.” She went on to say, “I was sure that they would all tell me to get out of the house and never come back.” She went on to say to Flanders, “But all of them of my family had heard about how Ruckus had fled for his life from the two of us right here that day. And they all approved of my eternal decision I made about the Saviour. In fact they began to ask me questions about Jesus. I didn’t know any good answer to their good questions, because I am still just a babe in Christ. But one thing they knew—Ruckus ran for his life in front of me. And they all decided that they wanted Christ as Saviour, too, just like I. I could not remember all the right words of the right prayer that you had me to say, Flanders. But I did know where I could find them. I remember the tract you had boldly given me when I was a cheerleader long ago. I knew that I had thrown it in my desk drawer
in the middle and in the top and had forgotten it for some few years. As soon as they all told me that they all wanted to get right with God, I ran up to my bedroom, scrambled furiously for that little booklet which I had once disdained, and found it all crumpled up in the back. I took it out, carefully sought to take away all of the folds and wrinkles, and came back down with it. Sure enough, this salvation tract had a sample sinners’ prayer in the back which if a person said from his heart, he could get saved. It was much like your prayer that you had me to say. I dared to ask them, “Do you want to get saved right now?” And they all said, “Yes!” And I read this sample prayer for salvation before them, line by line, and made sure that all six of them repeated that line after me exactly as I said it to
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them, Flanders. And that they all did. And that I did. Now they are all born again, too, Flanders.” With a long happy sigh, the prom gown girl said. “That means Mom and Dad and Big Brother and Little Brother and Big Sister and Little Sister.”
“Ah, Tracy,” said Flanders Nickels, happy with her and proud of her, “the parable of the lost sheep.”
“The parable of the lost sheep?” she asked.
And he opened his Holy Bible and read this parable to her: “’What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.’ Luke 15:4-7, O Tracy.”
“I was that lost sheep. Wasn’t I, Flanders?” she asked.
“I had cared for you from afar, O Tracy,” he said to his new prom gown girlfriend. “And the very day you got saved here, you led all six of the rest of your family to salvation right after.”
“God found his lost sheep here on the bench yesterday, and God found six more lost sheep at home last night,” said the prom gown woman.
In his new life with his girlfriend-in-the-Lord, Flanders then said, “And then there is the parable of the lost coin, Tracy.”
“The parable of the lost coin?” she asked.
And he looked on to the next three verses in this Luke chapter fifteen, and he read to her this parable as well: “’Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she
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calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.’ Luke 15:8-10.”
“I was your lost coin on the bench with you yesterday, Flanders,” said the prom gown lady.
“And your family were your lost coins at home later that evening,” he said to her.
“God found one lost coin in the afternoon, and God found six lost coins in the evening,” summed up Tracy Treble Clef.
“There are no greater miracles in this modern world than souls coming to Christ,” said Flanders Nickels about the work of soul-winners.
“I know of another lost sheep, Flanders,” she said.
“Who?” asked Flanders.
“I know of another lost coin, Flanders,” she said again in a different way about the same person.
“Girlfriend, who might be this lost sheep and this lost coin?” he asked Tracy Treble Clef.
“He is Ruckus,” dared say the prom gown girl.
“Ruckus?” asked Flanders, taken off guard. Then he said in sincerity, “Yes. Ruckus.”
“Would you pray for me when I try to get him to start thinking about God, Flanders?” asked the
prom gown girl.
“I will be with you every time you go to him and try to tell him about God,” promised Flanders Nickels.
It is written, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” II Peter 3:9. Again it is written, “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;…” II Peter 3:15.
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